News

Heavy rains delay northwest Missouri harvest, threaten grain quality

An agronomist in northwest Missouri says the constant heavy rains are delaying harvest and impacting grain quality.

“We have recieved more than enough rain in this part of the world,” says Erin Marlow with CropWise Consulting.

She tells Brownfield several inches of rain have been falling at a time, and the crops aren’t handling it well.

“There’s kernels sprouting in the ears for certain. I don’t know of any soybean pods that have shattered,” she says. “But it seems like at this point it’s likely inevitable. If we do dry out, it’s likely we see some pods start to drop.”

Marlow says farmers are going to have a difficult time harvesting a high-quality crop once they can get into the fields.

“Going into it, we had really good yield checks. We had a good yield number, overall, better than average,” Marlow says. “Now, we’re just going to have to see how much of that will be harvestable.”

Marlow says she’s not ever experienced a fall harvest like this in her professional career.